EBIC co-signs joint statement on Horizon Europe priorities for agriculture and the bioeconomy
April 2026
The European Biostimulants Industry Council (EBIC) has joined a broad coalition of organisations across Europe’s agriculture and bioeconomy sectors in co-signing a joint statement on the future of the EU’s research and innovation framework programme, Horizon Europe (2028–2034).
The statement responds to ongoing discussions in the European Parliament, in particular proposed amendments that would replace explicit references to “agriculture and bioeconomy” with broader terminology in a key policy area of the programme.
The signatories support the original language and oppose the broader terminology. They underline that explicitly naming agriculture and the bioeconomy sends a clearer signal to researchers, investors and industry that these sectors are central to Europe’s sustainable growth strategy. Agriculture plays a stabilising role in ensuring food security, resilience and sustainability, while the bioeconomy represents a major opportunity for the EU’s green transition and rural development. Removing this visibility risks weakening their priority in practice.
The joint statement also highlights the risk of reopening discussions on the structure of the programme at this stage of the legislative process. Such changes could trigger broader debates on its overall architecture, introducing unnecessary complexity and potentially delaying adoption. This would create uncertainty for the research and innovation community, which relies on a stable and predictable framework.
For the plant biostimulants sector, the visibility of agriculture and the bioeconomy within EU research policy is closely linked to the ability to drive innovation and deployment of sustainable solutions. Biostimulants contribute to more resilient agricultural systems, improved resource efficiency and the broader transition towards a circular, bio-based economy. Ensuring that these sectors remain clearly anchored in Horizon Europe is therefore important for supporting continued research, innovation and uptake across the sector.
Through this joint statement, EBIC and its partners call on policymakers to retain the original structure of the programme and to ensure that agriculture and the bioeconomy remain firmly embedded within Europe’s research and innovation priorities.
Read the joint statement here.